[King] went on: “Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the world to see us. If you leave, that door can be closed. Because, you see, your role is not a black role, it’s not a female role. He can fill it with anything, including an alien.”

Nichols was left speechless. “I just stood there, realizing every word he was saying was the truth,” she recalled. “And at that moment, the world tilted for me.”

A few days after that encounter, Nichols told Roddenberry what King had said. The “Star Trek” creator looked at Nichols, she recollected, and said “God bless Dr. Martin Luther King. Somebody knows where I’m coming from.”

Source: Why Star Trek was so important to Martin Luther King Jr. - The Washington Post

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